Comparative study
of open-source
e-learning systems
INNO-Connection
Bifröst University
Version 1.0 − 10. December 2014
C O M P A R A T I V E S T U D Y O F O P E N
-S O U R C E E - L E A R N I N G -S Y -S T E M -S
This report was authored by: Hjalti Benediktsson and Palmar Thorsteinsson Bifröst University December 2014
This report was compiled for the project „INNO-Connection: the development of Polish-Icelandic partnership in the area of aca-demic excellence with the use of ICT“. The project is funded by the measure Inter-institutional Cooperation of the Scholarship and Training Fund that is operated by the Foundation for Develop-ment of Education System (FRSE) in Poland. The Fund is financed by non-refundable aid from the members of EFTA, i.e. Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein.
Executive summary
• This report compares three open-source learning management systems; ILIAS, Moodle and Sakai
• The report outlines evaluation criteria for open-source LMS systems
• All three systems under review fulfill the necessary criteria re-quired for a successful e-learning implementation
• One of the most important aspect of an LMS system is compati-bility with third party system which provide features that further support e-learning
• Customizability is an important factor
• When using open-source systems, lower license fees may be offset by higher IT costs
• Report authors recommend Moodle as an LMS for Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa
Contents
1
Introduction
5
2
Rationalization for valuation criteria
7
3
Overview of learning management systems
13
4
Overview of e-learning support systems
19
5
Conclusions and recommendations
23
6
Bibliography
25
A
The basics steps of successful LMS implementation
27
B
Detailed system information
29
1
Introduction
This comparative study of open-source Learning Management Sys-tems (LMS) is performed as a part of the INNO-Connection project which is sponsored by the EEA grants framework. The project aims to transfer the knowledge that the partner, Bifröst University, has of LMS systems to the applicant, Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa. This report will give an overview of the main open-source LMS sys-tems available as alternatives to Bifröst Universities closed-source LMS, MySchool1
. Since LMS systems only make up a part of the 1
MySchool is an LMS which was developed internally at Reykjavik University from 1998 but has been de-veloped by an independent company Stúdía ehf. since 2007.
complete e-learning software environment, supporting systems such as recording, live-broadcasting and e-conferencing will be discussed briefly.
A great variety of LMS systems is available either commercially or open-sourced and both types of systems are in widespread use throughout the world. A third category, so called freemium2
sys- 2
Freemium systems are scaled down version of commercial systems that institutions can use free of charge and optionally expand later to a fully paid service, usually to enjoy or enable advanced features.
tems, is emerging and gaining traction. The objectives of this report however is to compare open-source systems only.
Due to the multitude of different LMS systems, making a com-prehensive overview is beyond the scope of this report. Instead, three of the main open-source LMS systems are compared in this report. These systems were chosen as they either have the most widespread adoption, the most active development community or are being used by a number of sizeable institutions. These factors are the primary concerns for long-term adoption of open-source software. The systems chosen for evaluation were ILIAS, Moodle and Sakai.
In order to make an objective comparison between the LMS systems, the report uses a valuation criteria designed by and based on the experience of Bifröst university. The report will conclude with a recommendation of an LMS system, based on the valuation criteria, that the applicant institution can use and develop for its use.
2
Rationalization for valuation criteria
A Learning Management System (LMS) by definition is a software system that allows institutions to conduct or support learning, training, and education through electronic means. LMS systems generally also track and reports on the activity of users of the soft-ware. The main focus of an LMS is to deliver online courses or training to students, while managing student rosters and keeping track of their progress and performance throughout all types of training activities. An LMS is generally not used to create course content but only to mediate content and information between stake-holders.
LMS systems are however not all made equal and developers and the community behind each system may have different ob-jectives in mind which are reflected in different system designs. However, there are six mantras for any LMS. Ease of use, robust re-porting, scalability, security, Open API for custom integrations and in-place integrations for mainstream education and business ap-plications. In order to establish evaluation criteria for open-source LMS systems, this chapter will describe the typical and desired functions and features of an LMS and what needs an LMS should try to meet. The evaluation criteria can be found in appendix B.
2.1
Stakeholders and user groups of an LMS
In all systems the stakeholders have to be recognized and their roles clearly defined. The views and processes of each stakeholder must be taken into account when the LMS system is being evaluated. Fol-lowing are the main stakeholders in learning management systems: Students
Students are the primary end-users and largest group of users. Stu-dents are primarily consumers of created content and occasionally take on support roles for teachers, e.g. as teacher assistants. Teachers
Teachers are end-users, content creators, stewards of their assigned courses and offer first level support for students. Some teachers
8 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
may take on roles as "super users" in order to help system adminis-trators in providing first level support for other teachers.
Student registry
Student registry staff are end-users who gather analytical data and oversee quality assurance. Student registry staff assign and monitor student learning outcomes and perform quality checks for courses and best practices in teaching. Assign users to courses and maintain both user and course registry.
Administrative staff
Administrative staff are end-users whose role are reporting and quality assurance oversight as well as planning of system changes with other stakeholders. The participate in system development test groups with system administrators.
System administrators
System administrators perform day-to-day tasks to ensure that the system runs smoothly. These users handle security, maintenance and backups and provide first and second level support for all stakeholders. System administrators also eversee and manage user tests and system development.
2.2
Cost consideration of open-source software
A few considerations must be taken into account when evaluating open-source systems. While open-source software is typically avail-able for use without a license fee there is a common misconception that open-source software is costless. Surely, open-source software is habitually proclaimed as free but free in this context refers to the freedom that users have in editing or auditing the source code of the software themselves instead of subjecting themselves to the whims of firms or software developers. Even strong supporters of open-source software acknowledge that there are costs involved that may not apply to proprietary software, the cost of open source software simply comes in a different form. The downside of not paying anyone for software is that there is no one who is obliged to offer technical support, fix bugs or develop new features. The ex-tent of this cost however differs between open-source systems and depends in a great deal on the community around the open-source project.
As this report evaluates open-source software there will be eval-uation criteria measuring the extent and activity of the support and development communities.
Availability of support
Lack of vendor support can increase the workload of system ad-ministrators and require more in-house technical skills. Increased
c o m pa r at i v e s t u dy o f o p e n-source e-learning systems 9
workload and more skill requirements can lead to higher IT costs within the institution which offset some or all of the gains from not paying a license fee. This cost can be remedied with an active sup-port community, a thorough wiki or a detailed manual containing instructions and guidelines for IT staff. While some companies offer paid support for open-source software users must generally rely on community support and development. Therefore, the availability of community support will need to be measured by the evaluation criteria.
Development and long-term viability
Even though many open-source software projects are managed by organizations or companies, they often rely on voluntary develop-ment contributions by community members or financial donations. Many open-source projects have ceased development or met their demise as community members lost interest or moved to different projects. Decreased development activity affects both maintenance of current code base, such as fixing bugs and security vulnerabil-ities, and development of new features. In case development of the LMS system would decline, it would slowly become outdated, forcing the institution to switch systems. Since such an operation would incur cost, one must take into account the long-term viability of an open-source project before investing in an adoption.
The main factors that affect and indicate the long-term viability of an open-source project are the current user base, previous financial donations and the current activity of development. In order to measure the long-term viability there will be criteria measuring these factors.
2.3
Features supporting e-learning activities
While e-learning may in practice be quite different from traditional learning, the general pedagogical objectives still remain. Students must be engaged, communicated with and informed despite the distance that may be between the student and the teacher. How-ever, there is no single approach to e-learning and different imple-menters attempt to achieve their goals with different means.
When conducting distance learning, various material, such as syllabuses and lecture handouts, which traditionally were phys-ically delivered to students during lectures must be delivered by other means, typically electronically. However, distributing files is the least of concerns. When students are dispersed and lack face-to-face contact with their teacher and fellow students it becomes more challenging to engage students, spark discussions and achieve interactivity in the learning process as a whole. Some students may in turn get discouraged which may eventually lead to lower academic performance and increased dropout risk. For students requiring more disciplined supervision, the problem can be further aggravated by a more flexible time schedule and an increased need
10 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
for student initiative. This can be alleviated by building a strong course community, e.g. using social media, discussion platforms and regular live group discussions via video conferencing.
In order to fulfill pedagogical goals, e-learning typically consists of some or all of the following activities:
• Live broadcasted or recorded lectures; containing audio and optionally video
• Live conferencing; containing audio and optionally video • Mediation of learning material; e.g. syllabus, reading material,
handouts
• Community building; via announcements, discussions, Q&A and student-teacher communication
• Publishing assignments and returning grades and feedback The availability of the features above determine the suitability of the LMS system for e-learning. Therefore, these features will be measured by the evaluation criteria.
Live broadcasting and conferencing is typically performed using different software than the LMS. However, an LMS should prefer-ably support interoperability with these third party systems using API’s and a shared user account system. Other features are delivered through distribution of files, a system for handling announcements, discussions, posting and receiving assignments as well as returning assignment feedback and publishing grades.
The LMS must be user-friendly for all users; students, teachers and other staff. User-friendliness will be measured subjectively for each system. With a growing culture of mobile phone and tablet use, support for a range of devices has become an important factor. With web based platforms, supporting different computer operating systems is usually not a problem but support for tablets and mobile phones is not as certain. We will assess support for such devices as well.
2.4
Student registry and educational career overview
Features that allow students to review their educational career are a part of some LMS systems. While these features are appreci-ated, they are not essential for successfully promoting e-learning. Such features include allowing students to list their previously fin-ished courses and grades as well as viewing and signing up for available courses.
Similar features are sometimes available for staff members who manage student databases, courses of studies and enrollment in courses. In such cases, the LMS is able to generate student population statis-tics.
These features will be measured by the evaluation criteria but as these features are not required, they will not affect the final score.
c o m pa r at i v e s t u dy o f o p e n-source e-learning systems 11
However, as these features do contribute to the overall quality of the system they will affect the final verdict and choice of system.
3
Overview of learning management systems
The purpose of this report is to compare three open-source LMS systems. This chapter will portray the three systems which are under review, ILIAS, Moodle and Sakai. The features and character-istics of each system will be described.
3.1
ILIAS
ILIAS or Integriertes Lern-, Informations- und Arbeitskooperations-System1
was developed at the University of Cologne in Germany 1
In English this translates as Inte-grated Learning, Information and Work Cooperation System
as part of the VIRTUS project and is currently in use in over 5.000 institutions. It is published under the GNU General Public License, witch means it can be used without paying a license fee. Its user base is a mixture of universities and government and defense orga-nizations.(Wikipedia, 2014a)
ILIAS has been steadily evolving since 1997 and is one of the oldest LMS in use today, with the first open-source version pub-lished in 2000 (Wikipedia, 2014a). It has managed to retain a grow-ing user base since its inception and it boasts of a certification for conforming to NATO security standards (ILIAS, 2014f). ILIAS is therefore a good choice for security concerned institutions. ILIAS has an active community and sponsors its own annual conference (ILIAS, 2014d). Community support is therefore good. However it suffers from a somewhat dated interface design and several fea-tures of other LMSs, e.g. mobile integration, require the installation of plug-ins or other add-ons. ILIAS can be tested through a demo instance which is available on the ILIAS website2
. 2
An on-line demo instance of ILIAS is available here: http://demo.ilias.de/login.php
ILIAS strongly adheres to standards and was the first open-source LMS that was certified as SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 compliant (ILIAS, 2014f). For communication purposes ILIAS of-fers an internal news system, discussion forums and a combined PHP/Java chat with a clever invitation to the chat by the "Who-is-online?"-mode. Tutors can moderate forums and chats. The internal news system is for all users, even the administration. ILIAS sup-ports delivery of mail to both internal and external e-mail addresses (ILIAS, 2014b). ILIAS has a multi-purpose tool that can be used as a flexible course player, as an authoring tool and also as a commu-nication and collaboration platform (ILIAS, 2014f). An additional
14 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
distance learning tools that it offers is a port to the virtual class-room program iLinc for web meetings (ILIAS, 2014a).
ILIAS runs on any OS that can run PHP and MySQL and is often installed on Linux servers. Server requirements are fairly modest; a dual core processor with 4 GB RAM and 25 GB of storage would be enough for both the operating system and ILIAS (ILIAS, 2014c). The latest release, version 4.4.6, was published on 22nd November 2014and requires PHP 5.3 or higher. A new version 5.0 will be released In December 2014 (ILIAS, 2014e).
When it comes to community support, ILIAS met all the criteria that the authors feel are important for an LMS. It has a community forum, albeit moderately active, on-line tracking of bugs submit-ted, very well organized on-line documentation, version history and a future road-map. When looking at the community develop-ment aspects of ILIAS it also scores very well. The organization of the ILIAS project shares many similarities with the organization of Moodle. Both have a small coordinating team which holds devel-opment of the product on course and both allow crowd-funding to fund development of requested features. ILIAS has a sizable installation base and a schedule for future versions. Financial in-formation was unfortunately not available for the ILIAS project so it could not be evaluated in that regard. ILIAS scores lower in us-ability than the other systems, however this is an objective opinion of the authors. In usability and user experience it lacks a dedicated mobile app such as the one Moodle has. ILAS however scores top marks in interoperability and meets all the teaching parameters set in the criteria, as do both Sakai and Moodle. In the educational career category ILIAS does not seem to offer students an overview of past courses but all other functions were available. Finally in the student registry criteria ILIAS has a good module for every aspect of course management, as Moodle does, apart from the ability to al-low student registry staff to define lines of study for students. This feature was not found in Moodle or Sakai either.
ILIAS has all the functions we would expect from a LMS and meets all the requirements set forth in the criteria. It has a smaller community than some of the larger LMS but has more European higher education users. ILIAS is a very good LMS if you can live with the somewhat dated interface.
3.2
Moodle
The first version of Moodle was released on 20 August 2002 by Martin Dougiamas (Moodle Pty Ldt, 2014b). Moodle is a acronym for modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment. Moodle is primarily aimed at the education market but it is also widely used in the corporate sector. Moodle is open-source and therefore without any upfront fees. Certain optional peripherals and sup-port from third parties can however incur costs as the LMS build progresses.
c o m pa r at i v e s t u dy o f o p e n-source e-learning systems 15
Moodle has most of what you would expect in an LMS such as a student dashboard, progress tracking and support for multimedia classes. It also provides additional mobile friendly themes, support for third party plug-ins and a vast amount of add-ons (Moodle Pty Ldt, 2014a). The customization options is second to none for any LMS on the market. Because Moodle is a big open-source player in the LMS space, a massive and very active community provides support from it. As a result of this massive community there is also a huge collection of plug-ins (Moodle Pty Ldt, 2014c) and options to customize the LMS to your exact specifications. Moodle also benefits from an extensive online documentation for help with support issues or questions (Moodle Pty Ldt, 2014d). Moodle offers a specific course content web, Moodle.net, that allows users to publish and download content that Moodle users can import and use for their own courses3
. Moodle.net is one of the features that 3
The Moodle.net website is available on the following url: http://moodle.net
make Moodle one of the best supported open source LMS available. There are some downsides to the customizability of Moodle. It has been criticized as overly complex and difficult to learn, to master and to set up - as well as for having a dated user interface. Having an installation partner with a good track record in univer-sity environments to guide the setup might prove useful. Other potential downsides include incomplete reporting of learners activi-ties and no easy way to manage groups of learners within the LMS. This can be partly fixed with the installation of a Learning Record Store (LRS.) like Tin Can.
Moodle typically runs in a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server environment and the basic server requirement is fairly meager. A server with a 2GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM or more is recommended as a minimum with an addition of 1GB of RAM for every 10 to 20 concurrent users Sakshi (2014).
There are currently three active versions being supported. Re-lease version 2.6 is maintained until May 2015, version 2.7 is tained until May 2017 and the latest release, version 2.8, is main-tained until June 2016 (Moodle Pty Ldt, 2014e). While we recom-mend the latest release, it must be kept in mind that older ver-sions have a higher installation base and more plug-ins available to choose from. However the latest release offers more security, mobile phone and tablet support and an extended support life.
Moodle scores top marks in the community support criteria with its massive loyal developer base, great on-line documentation and open-source teaching content. Moodle also did well in the community development criteria, having the company Moodle Pty Ltd. or “Moodle HQ” to look after the project. Moodle also boasts of a massive installation base and a clear release road-map. No complete funding information was found, but it shares the same crowd-funding model as ILIAS for developers. In usability criteria Moodle scores top marks, even offering a dedicated mobile app for Android and IOS, a feature that neither Sakai nor ILIAS has. Moodle has all the interoperability features that are expected from
16 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
an LMS and has adopted all the major standards, just as Sakai and ILIAS have. The teaching criteria was also fully scored and Moodle met all the requirements like both ILIAS and Sakai. Moodle scores full marks in in the educational career criteria and, like ILIAS, it allows students to see overview of their grades and enroll into courses. At last, Moodle offers, like ILIAS, all the student registry features apart from being able to define lines of study for students.
Moodle is a solid proven open source LMS with a good track record and very good support. It ticks all the boxes in our criteria evaluations. With so many add-ins to choose from, one must choose wisely and strategically.
3.3
Sakai
The Sakai foundation released the first version of Sakai in March 2005. Sakai is now developed by the Apereo foundation, an or-ganization formed with the merger of the Sakai foundation and Jasig. The foundation is a member-based, non-profit corporation. It encourages community building between individuals, academic institutions, non-profits and commercial organizations. Apereo foundation, being well funded by its primary partners (Apereo Foundation, 2014e), oversees the strategic development of the soft-ware. The foundation has significant resources for further develop-ment and annually offers six fellowship grants of $2.500 each for volunteer contributors (Apereo Foundation, 2014a).
Sakai differs from Moodle and ILIAS in a few key elements. It is built using the Java programming language while the other systems reviewed here use PHP and, while it is open source, only certain key stakeholders are permitted to contribute to the source code and the development process (Apereo Foundation, 2014f). This is not entirely a bad thing but limits the design vectors for small con-tributors and possibly their future software needs. Since Sakai is Java-based and runs on a Tomcat server, it might be slightly more difficult or expensive to customize and set up, possibly increasing the total cost of ownership for operators. Sakai serves a smaller group of clients and there is not as broad a community of support, plug-ins and add-ons as there is with Moodle, for instance. How-ever the standard setup of Sakai is so complete and feature rich that this might not be a significant problem. No hardware requirements are to be found in Sakai on-line guides.
Sakai features include assignments, grade-book, course magement, assessment tool, syllabus tool, course authoring tool, an-nouncements, social, calendar, messaging, file repository including sharing, polls, presentation tool, workspaces, ePortfolio, analytics, IMS and SCORM. Sakai supports mobile devices from version 10 onwards (Apereo Foundation, 2014c).
Sakai has some features that differentiate it from other LMS such as Google Drive integration (Mezzanotte, 2014) and their own Dropbox-like service to share data between users. While having
c o m pa r at i v e s t u dy o f o p e n-source e-learning systems 17
these ready made integrations, Sakai also conforms strictly to LMS LTIv2 and SCORM and open APIs based on REST and SOAP archi-tecture (Apereo Foundation, 2014d). Sakai relies on a back-end stu-dent information system to provide it with all stustu-dent and course information, which Sakai consults via provided APIs (Apereo Foun-dation, 2014b).
Two versions are currently supported; 2.9.x released 9. Novem-ber 2012 and the latest 10.x released 30. June 2014 (Wikipedia, 2014b). We would recommend that the latest version would be used as it has many new features and a new user interface.
In terms of community support, Sakai met all the criteria, like both ILIAS and Moodle do. Sakai has good on-line documenta-tion, a wiki and guides. It also has on-line bug tracking and active discussion forums like Moodle and ILIAS. When it comes to the community development criteria, it scores well but does have the fewest installations of all the LMS in the comparison. The lower installation base is somewhat offset by the strength of the com-munity partners. Sakai has a substantially stronger financial base than Moodle and ILIAS have. Sakai also has a potent foundation to manage the project and large and well endowed university part-ners contributing to the development. In usability criteria it scores well with has a new revamped user interface in its latest version but it lacks a dedicated mobile app like Moodle has. Sakai scores top marks in the interoperability criteria by having adopting all the major standards like Moodle and ILIAS. Sakai is not rated in stu-dent registry criteria as it relies on an external stustu-dent information system for this information via APIs but it does share the ability to have learning outcome surveys made like Moodle and ILIAS.
Sakai is a quality built LMS which is on par with the best propri-etary systems and contains, out-of-the-box, all the range of features required to set-up a capable LMS.
4
Overview of e-learning support systems
While the focus of this report is LMS systems, the authors find that it is important to discuss e-learning support systems, such as recording and live broadcasting systems and e-conferencing software, since this software, together with the LMS system, form a complete solution for e-learning. The purpose of such software is to support the pedagogical aspects of distance learning with respect to mediating recorded lectures and communication between the members of a course. When teachers need to prepare on-line lectures, the tools they use can have a decisive effect on the quality of the end product; the on-line lectures.
In order for LMS and any support systems to form an integral whole, it is important to select a CMS that is has an open API or has ready made plug-ins that allow connections between the LMS and the third party solution. For digital media, supporting play-back on various platforms is of paramount importance. Interactivity between students as well as between students and teachers is also equally important.
A good starting point is to look at the systems that currently of-fer integration or have plug-ins for your selected LMS. The systems below are only some of the leading solutions in creating on-line lectures and hosting on-line meetings. There are also countless of other systems not covered here and it is recommended that imple-menters test as many systems as possible. Usually, vendors offer free trials periods. We also point out communication options that are free, with a relatively short implementation time-frame and can be used to record and store video content and deliver to a LMS or CMS.
4.1
Open Broadcaster Software
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is an open-source software so-lution for video recording, screen capturing and live streaming. Supported features include e.g. recording web-cam feeds. Editing is scene-based and allows for switching between input sources while recording and broadcasting. OBS supports various encoding and publishing methods, such as H264 (x264) and AAC through MP4 or FLW containers, Live RTMP streaming to YouTube and more.
20 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
Output files will need to be uploaded to the LMS for storage and viewing.
4.2
Panopto
Panopto is a software company that provides software commonly used in e-learning environments for lecture recording, screen-casting, video streaming, and video content management. The platform fully supports integration with Moodle, Sakai and ILIAS. The software from Panopto is not open-source but is very capable and can be hosted either on- or off-site.
4.3
Kaltura
Kaltura is a very capable open-source on-line platform for video publishing and management. The platform fully supports integra-tion with Moodle and Sakai through an open API. It also offers paid services to universities. Kaltura can be hosted on- or off-site.
4.4
Camtasia
Camtasia screen-casting tools are developed by TechSmith. It in-cludes desktop capture, recording and editing software and a Re-lay Server, a state of the art video content management system. Camtasia Studio is a very good screen recording software and can upload directly to an LMS. It provides excellent editing and conver-sion functionalities. Camtasia is a leading software in local lecture recording and production of on-line lectures. A Camtasia Studio and Relay Server solution is currently in testing at Bifröst Univer-sity and UniverUniver-sity of Iceland.
4.5
Office 365
Microsoft offers its Office 365 solution free of charge for universi-ties. It includes the software Lync which can be used to record local lectures and broadcast live sessions.. Office 365 also provides email, productivity apps, collaboration tools and private user storage.
4.6
Google apps for education
Google offers its Google apps free of charge for universities. Google Hangouts and Hangouts on Air provide local lecture recording fea-tures and live broadcasting capabilities. As with Office 365, Google apps for education provides email, productivity apps, collaboration tools and private user storage.
c o m pa r at i v e s t u dy o f o p e n-source e-learning systems 21
4.7
BigBlueButton
BigBlueButton is an open-source web meeting platform to enable communication and online collaboration. It includes ready made integrations with LMS systems, including Moodle and Sakai, as well as multiple CMS systems. It offers an API and support for the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard. BigBlueButton allows easy guest usage for users outside the institution.
5
Conclusions and recommendations
It is hard to favor one of the three open-source LMS systems sys-tems that are reviewed here. All three syssys-tems are extremely capa-ble and offer all the functionality that are required for e-learning activities. Each system has its own strong points; ILIAS is a secure system and upholds strict standards, Moodle has a massive devel-oper base and great on-line support and finally Sakai is a polished system with extensive out-of-the-box features. While the great out-of-the-box setup of Sakai is fantastic, its slightly more limited access to the development progress may pose problems for some adopters. The user interface of ILIAS can be slightly more challeng-ing for new end users which may negatively affect adoption rates and overall implementation success. Finally, the extensive range of options and plug-ins available for Moodle increases complexity and makes it hard for some adopters to set-up the “just right” combina-tion of modules and opcombina-tions. Which system to choose depends on the specific requirements of the institution.
As a small university, Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa has limited resources for adopting an LMS. However it benefits from in-house experience in the PHP programming language, making a PHP based system a more logical choice than a Java based one. Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa is already running PHP and MySQL based systems, so both infrastructure and the know-how to operate such infrastructure is readily available. While Sakai is a Java based system, this leaves Moodle and ILIAS as the primary contenders. Access to support and documentation is a crucial factor for successful implementation of a LMS. Considering that many of the universities that Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa cooperate with in Poland are using Moodle, it seems that more local support and experience would be available for implementing and customiz-ing Moodle than ILIAS. The local support and experience adds to the already massive on-line Moodle support community of develop-ers and international adoptdevelop-ers.
While all the LMS systems under review fulfill the primary eval-uation criteria and could suit Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa, the report authors recommend Moodle as an LMS because it leverages prior in-house experience as well as support from its collaborating universities. These factors are extremely important for successful
24 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
implementation. Moodle also offers extensive customization fea-tures and has a wide range of extensions and on-line resources.
The authors of this report also recommend that Wy ˙zsza Szkoła Finansów i Prawa make good use of reporting features to get bet-ter understanding of user activities inside of Moodle. Also, that good integration with existing in-house student registry software is implemented. Furthermore, adding a video content management system to record and store on-line lectures would greatly enhance e-learning capabilities. The authors recommend a Techsmith Relay server connected to the LMS, using e.g. the LTI framework, with a few on-campus workstations equipped with Camtasia Studio for further editing as the basic recorder in the Relay server software is not fully capable of advanced production of on-line lectures. Jointly, this software will provide the ability to record local lectures and to produce advanced on-line lecture materials. Finally adding a BigBlueButton web meeting platform would enable on-line com-munication and collaboration with all of your distance learners in a virtual classroom.
6
Bibliography
Apereo Foundation (2014a). Apereo Fellows. https:// sakaiproject.org/apereo-fellows.
Apereo Foundation (2014b). Current Release. https: //sakaiproject.org/current-release.
Apereo Foundation (2014c). Features, Tools & Functionality. https://sakaiproject.org/features-tools-functionality. Apereo Foundation (2014d). Industry Standards. https: //sakaiproject.org/industry-standards.
Apereo Foundation (2014e). Member Organizations. https: //www.apereo.org/content/member-organizations.
Apereo Foundation (2014f). What does open source mean for Sakai? https://sakaiproject.org/ what-does-open-source-mean-sakai.
ILIAS (2014a). Feature Wiki: iLinc. http://www.ilias.de/docu/ goto.php?target=wiki_1357_iLinc.
ILIAS (2014b). Feature Wiki: Mail. http://www.ilias.de/docu/ goto.php?target=wiki_1357_Mail.
ILIAS (2014c). Hardware Requirements. http://www.ilias.de/ docu/ilias.php?ref_id=367&baseClass=ilLMPresentationGUI& obj_id=57007.
ILIAS (2014d). ILIAS Conference. http://www.ilias.de/ docu/ilias.php?ref_id=2255&cmd=frameset&cmdClass= ilrepositorygui&cmdNode=65&baseClass=ilRepositoryGUI. ILIAS (2014e). Roadmap ILIAS 4. http://www.ilias.de/docu/ ilias.php?ref_id=35&baseClass=ilLMPresentationGUI&obj_ id=126.
ILIAS (2014f). Using ILIAS. http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto_ docu_cat_580.html.
Mezzanotte, J. (2014). Google Drive Integration Guide. https://support.anisakai.com/entries/ 75072166-Google-Drive-Integration-Guide-.
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Moodle Pty Ldt (2014a). Features. https://docs.moodle.org/26/ en/Features.
Moodle Pty Ldt (2014b). History. https://docs.moodle.org/25/ en/History.
Moodle Pty Ldt (2014c). Moodle plugins directory. https:// moodle.org/plugins/.
Moodle Pty Ldt (2014d). MoodleDocs. https://docs.moodle. org/28/en/Main_page.
Moodle Pty Ldt (2014e). Releases. https://docs.moodle.org/ dev/Releases.
Sakshi (2014). Site Setup - mooclms 2.6.1 documentation. http: //mooclms.readthedocs.org/en/latest/site_setup.html. Wikipedia (2014a). ILIAS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ILIAS.
Wikipedia (2014b). Sakai Project. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Sakai_Project.
A
The basics steps of successful LMS implementation
Following are a few basic steps to a successful LMS implementa-tion.
1. Start of by creating an internal LMS team and assign roles to team members. The team should include staff from human re-sources, the student registry, management, and the IT depart-ment. All members in the team must be able to focus at full strength on the implementation of the LMS and should be dedi-cated to making it successful.
2. Get to know the system. Nearly all LMS vendors/developers offer a wide range of training material or hands-on support. when you have settled on an LMS you should take advantage of every training opportunity available and get to know the ins and outs to the system. Poke around in a test "sandboxed" en-vironment prior to setting up a production enen-vironment. Make an early outline of your web based support portal and compose instructions for all stakeholders.
3. Integrate your LMS with any other systems that your institu-tion may be running, such as human resource systems, content management system (CMS), student registry or accounting and billing system. It is important to integrate where needed in order to get the most out of the tracking and reporting possibilities across all of your platforms as well as to facilitate process au-tomation. This is also the time to plan or add reporting functions like Learning Record Store (LRS) for reporting on system usage. You must plan your reporting well beforehand. There are many possible reporting tools, trending in 2014 is the Tin Can API. Do not be tempted to open usage to all options of the LMS, select and open for needed resources first and add more as needed. Default options generally are optimal settings.
4. Prepare your educational content. Check that you have all of your video/audio recordings, presentations, spreadsheets and handouts ready to go live. You should try to standardize class content in order to provide the same user experience and proper-ties between course. Once you have your content organized, it’s a simple and quick process to upload everything to your LMS.
28 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y
5. Test, test some more and then test again . . . then finally test some more! Now your LMS is integrated where necessary and full of content, it is time to test the courses on test users. Whether it is the internal LMS team, other staff or student test group – it is important to test the courses and assess user ex-perience. Make sure the flow of information and order of the content is the same throughout courses and all supplied support information is correct. "Trickle feed" the study material to the students. This is done intentionally and gradually in the start of study period as an abundance of material and assignments can by overwhelming to new users.
Once you have successfully followed each of the above steps, you are ready for your LMS to meet the world and go live. Just remem-ber to have in place good on-line training! Have all stakeholders use every LMS training opportunity and learn the ins and out the system. Not only the teachers, educating students, staff and ad-ministrators is just as important. These are key factors to your long-term success and system longevity.
B
Detailed system information
Moodle Sakai ILIAS
m i n i m u m s y s t e m r e q u i r e m e n t s
Processor 2GHz dual core NA Dual core
Memory 1GB NA 4GB
Disk space 5GB NA 25GB
s e rv e r e n v i ro n m e n t
Programming language PHP Java PHP
Database MySQL, PostgreSQL MySQL, Oracle MySQL, MariaDB,
MSSQL, Oracle, SQLite Oracle, PostgreSQL
o t h e r i n f o r m at i o n
Latest version Moodle 2.8.1 Sakai 10.2 ILIAS 4.2.10
C
32 b i f rö s t u n i v e r s i t y Moodle Sakai ILIAS c o m m u n i t y s u p p o r t The pr oject maintains an activ e w ebsite, last updated within the last tw o months y es y es y es The pr oject maintains a wiki, w ebsite or online manual containing installation guides y es y es y es The pr oject maintains a bug tracker wher e users can report bugs y es y es y es Ther e exists a community forum, an IRC channel or a mailing list dedicated to discussions of the LMS y es y es y es c o m m u n i t y d e v e l o p m e n t The LMS is backed b y an or ganization which emplo ys de v elopers w orking on the system y es y es y es The LMS is backed b y an or ganization that has receiv ed at least $ 100 . 000 in funding n/a y es n/a The LMS is backed b y an or ganization that has receiv ed at least $ 500 . 000 in funding n/a y es n/a The LMS is backed b y an or ganization that has receiv ed at least $ 1. 000 . 000 in funding n/a y es n/a The LMS is in activ e de v elopment with the latest release dated within one y ear fr om no w y es y es y es The LMS is in use b y at least 10 higher education or ganization y es y es y es The LMS is in use b y at least 50 higher education or ganization y es y es y es The LMS is in use b y at least 100 higher education or ganization y es y es y es u s a b i l i t y a n d u x The LMS is user friendly y es y es no The LMS can be used on curr ent tablets y es y es y es The LMS can be used on curr ent smart phones y es y es y es The LMS UI adapts automatically to tablets (r esponsiv e) y es y es y es The LMS UI adapts automatically to smart phones (r esponsiv e) y es y es y es The LMS has a dedicated mobile app y es no no The LMS has a Polish translation av ailable y es y es y es i n t e r o p e r a b i l i t y The LMS can be integrated with LDAP or Activ e Dir ector y ser vices y es y es y es The LMS support common single signon platfor ms y es y es y es The LMS of fers API’s for inter operability or can be extended to of fer API’s y es y es y es The LMS of fers media content integration y es y es y es
c o m pa r at i v e s t u dy o f o p e n-source e-learning systems 33 Moodle Sakai ILIAS t e a c h i n g The LMS allo ws teachers to post lear ning material thr ough upload of files y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to post lear ning material thr ough posting of URL ’s y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to post individual assignments y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to post gr oup assignments y es y es y es The LMS allo ws students to upload assignments y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to post priv ate grades to assignments y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to post priv ate textual feedback to assignments y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to see grade statistics for individual assignments y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to vie w students calculated final grades for the course y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to post announcements to all students in the class at the same time y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to see a list of students in the class y es y es y es The LMS allo ws teachers to set up a discussion forum for the class y es y es y es e d u c a t i o n a l c a r e e r The LMS allo ws students to vie w their educational car eer / course histor y y es y es y es The LMS allo ws students to see o v er vie w of grades in their educational car eer y es no no The LMS allo ws students to see a list of av ailable courses y es y es y es The LMS allo ws students to enr ol in courses y es no y es s t u d e n t r e g i s t r y The LMS allo ws student registr y personnel to manage student database y es no y es The LMS allo ws student registr y personnel to vie w student enr ollment y es no y es The LMS allo ws student registr y personnel to enr oll students into courses y es no y es The LMS allo ws student registr y personnel to see student population statistics y es no y es The LMS allo ws student registr y personnel to define lines or courses of study no no no The LMS allo ws student registr y personnel to cr eate lear ning outcome for ms y es y es y es